Zac Dalpe, Charlotte Checkers ready to open 2023-24 campaign after short offseason
It wasn’t much of a summer vacation for Zac Dalpe, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Dalpe’s offseason amounted to about two months — a month or two less than most other professional hockey players — but he said he is ready for the start of another season.
And that season begins Friday night at Bojangles Coliseum, when Dalpe and the Charlotte Checkers face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in both teams’ American Hockey League opener.
Faceoff is set for 7 p.m., and the teams will play again at 6 p.m. Saturday.
The Checkers’ 2022-23 AHL season ended in early May, when they lost to the eventual league-champion Hershey Bears in a second-round playoff series.
Dalpe’s season went much further.
After scoring 21 goals and 14 assists for Charlotte through the first three-quarters of the AHL season, he was called up to the Checkers’ NHL parent team, the Florida Panthers.
And he was part of the Panthers’ surprising run to the Stanley Cup Final, which Florida lost to Las Vegas. Dalpe had two goals in 14 regular-season games with Florida and scored once in 13 playoff appearances.
It was mid-June before the season ended.
“It was a short summer,” said Dalpe, 33, an Ontario native who now has a home in Charlotte, where his three sons are involved in youth football and hockey programs. “It was a summer where you played well into June, and now it’s a quick turnaround.”
Dalpe is a familiar face to Charlotte hockey fans. He played parts of three seasons with the Checkers from 2010-11 to 2012-13, then returned in the 2021-22 campaign when he left the Columbus Blue Jackets organization for the Florida Panthers.
Checkers’ coach Geordie Kinnear said Dalpe’s run with the Panthers in the NHL playoffs last spring is a good example to Charlotte’s younger players.
“You look at all the hard work he’s put in,” Kinnear said. “You put your head down and work hard. And he played in the Stanley Cup finals. It’s a good message for everyone.”
Dalpe spent a few weeks with the Panthers at their NHL training camp, then was assigned to Charlotte earlier this week, along with forward Jordan Sourdif and defenseman Casey Fitzgerald.
Sourdif played last season in Charlotte as a rookie, finishing with seven goals and 17 assists in 48 games.
Dalpe said the Checkers’ younger players are impressive.
“I can see speed and skill,” he said. “Obviously, that’s the way the game is trending now. That’s what these guys — I call them the young guys — are showing in practice.”
A couple of Charlotte’s standouts from last season are gone. Leading scorer Riley Nash (24 goals, 35 assists) signed a free agent contract with the New York Rangers. Aleksei Heponiemi, the team’s No. 4 scorer, has returned to his native Finland this season.
But returnees include forward Gerry Mayhew, whose 24 goals tied for tops on the team; left-winger Cam Morrison (16 points in 35 games); and defenseman Lucas Carlsson, whose 54 points (20 goals, 34 assists) were second on the team. The Checkers outscored opponents by 24 goals when Carlsson was on the ice last season.
And goalkeeper Mack Guzda is back after an impressive 16-9-3 record as a rookie.
“I think last year was a good start to my pro career,” Guzda said. “But it’s time now, with my second year, to take a step forward and continue to build on everything that we’ve worked on.”